You gotta keep your eye on the prize this week. Survive and advance!
The 2023 GHSA track and field season is nearing it's end. This is both incredibly exciting and also a little sad. It's been a very good season with mostly good weather and tons of impressive performances. The All time lists have yet again gotten multiple new marks. Saturday marks the first round of the GHSA state Championships (and maybe Monday if the weather doesn't cooperate...). Sectionals is always an interesting meet as you have some events where you more or less know who is going to make it through but you have other events where you have no clue and it could be almost anybody on the starting list.
I've often said the best thing about the track and field post season is that it doesn't matter what you've done during the regular season, you still have to show up and perform well in multiple rounds of qualification in order to get a chance to compete for a state championship. You don't get to run one fast time in February and then just coast. You have to advance from region, sometimes with prelims, and then sectionals, and then you get to state. And even at state most events have a preliminary round as well. It's a system designed to test the consistency and clutch ability of the athletes and I love it. There's certainly been a good mix of joy and agony over the years from this meet. But overall, I wouldn't have it any other way. So take a look at the entries for each sectional on Saturday. It's going to be a great day as a track and field coach!
Note - Sectional substitutions may be updated until noon today, so a couple of these could change. But this is mostly finalized.